People & Plants: Explore Tybee Island Marine Science Center’s Coastal Cultures Exhibit
The marine science center’s ethnobotany exhibit examines the relationship between coastal Georgia’s Gullah Geechee community and the plantlife that sustains them.
Coastal Georgia boasts a unique ecology, a rich history, and cultural legacy that are indelibly intertwined — and the Tybee Island Marine Science Center examines these connections in their new ethnobotany exhibit. The science center collaborated with artist Mya Timmons to bring the exhibit to fruition, which includes a sizable mural painted by Timmons, plantlife specimens that she helped identify, and audio recordings featuring voices of the Timmons family, who are of Gullah Geechee lineage and have inhabited Coastal Georgia by way of Harris Neck for many generations.
“A highlight of the Coastal Cultures Exhibit was the opportunity to work with artist Mya Timmons and her extended family,” said Joy Davis, an esteemed local artist who curated the exhibit for the center. “We discovered Mya through her work as a culture keeper, teaching others about medicinal native plants through drawing and storytelling. Getting to know Mya and the Timmons family was essential to understanding the richness and beauty of the heritage and lifestyle within the Gullah Geechee community. Their care for one another, hard work, and resilience were palpable throughout our time together. The exhibit honors their centuries-long relationship with the land and sea as self-sustainable people, highlighting how society can learn from these enduring connections.”
The exhibit is an invitation to discover the symbiosis between the flora of our coast and the cultural community that has subsisted on it. Timmons, a gifted illustrator who also operates a seafood business owned by her family for generations, hadn’t always been aware of the connection between her culture and the foodways that she grew up on. It wasn’t until she joined a UGA Sea Grant project with her cousin, Kayla, that she really began to appreciate her Gullah Geechee heritage and their longstanding ties to the coastal ecosystem.
“The title of the project was ‘Conserving ecologically and culturally importing plants in coastal Georgia ecosystems,” said Timmons. “Joining that project is what ignited my interest not only in plants, but also in my Gullah Geechee heritage.”
Through her work with the UGA Sea Grant, Timmons channeled her artistic prowess and cultural knowledge into a coloring book titled The Gullah Geechee Plant Guide Coloring Book, which was published in 2023. From there, she continued to engage in this work, conserving cultural connections in coastal Georgia.
In 2025, the marine science center connected with Timmons through a chance meeting at a local event connected to the conservation of Georgia’s coastal ecosystems. She crossed paths with the marine science center’s executive director Chantal Audran at The Youth Ocean Conservation Summit on Skidaway Island.
“We met there when I was teaching an illustration workshop,” said Timmons. “Chantal then went on to email me in June about creating a mural for their own Gullah Geechee exhibit.”
Timmons painted her mural on a sizable door, and as a primarily digital artist, the mural was her first handpainted installation.
“The main things I was trying to illustrate were the plants from the coloring book as well as the people, which I’ve included at the bottom, sowing seeds and harvesting, ultimately giving thanks to Mother Nature for this abundance to survive off the land,” she said. “I also have the butterfly to symbolize the ancestors and the knowledge that’s been passed down.”
She also included references to vital plants like deer tongue and life everlasting.
“It’s all about that connection between the people and the plants,” said Timmons.
She encourages the public to come and experience the Coastal Cultures Exhibit and learn about the local vegetation that has helped Gullah Geechee communities thrive for centuries:
“It’s such a rich piece of history pertaining to the coast that goes unnoticed all the time. There’s so much to learn.”
Timmons spent 10-weeks working on the exhibit and is continuing her commitment to cultural and coastal preservation with two new coloring books that she is currently working on with additional support from the UGA Sea Grant.
“In 2024, I was awarded the Artists, Writers and Scholars grant from UGA, and so I did a project proposal. My project is titled, ‘Gullah Geechee Plants and Culture: Illustrations of the Past for the Future.’ The first coloring book will be a deluxe edition of my first book with six additional plants and characters. The second coloring book will be about the Gullah Geechee community’s ties to the water with a focus on shellfish,” she said.
Those interested in purchasing copies of her impending coloring books can follow Timmons on Instagram @geecheehead.arts where she will announce their release.
The Coastal Cultures Exhibit is currently on view at the Tybee Island Marine Science Center. Visit tybeemarinescience.org/ to learn more.
